Long Beach to break ground on new bridge

Thursday, January 03, 2013

The Port of Long Beach will break ground next week on a $1 billion project to replace the aging Gerald Desmond Bridge with a wider, higher structure.
The project, expected to take three years, will create the largest bridge in Southern California, spanning the navigation channel that separates facilities on Terminal Island and the neighboring Port of Los Angeles.
The new cable-stayed bridge will include additional traffic lanes and a higher clearance to accommodate newer, taller generations of cargo ships. The existing four-lane bridge, built in the 1960s, has become obsolete for modern port operations, and has also grown more structurally unsound over the years.
The bridge is a key conduit for container truck traffic from Terminal Island and Port of Los Angeles terminals connecting to the Long Beach (710) Freeway.
The project is a joint effort of the California Department of Transportation and the Port of Long Beach, with funding from the U.S. Transportation Department and the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority. - Eric Johnson